The Transpersonal Vision

The Healing Potential of Nonordinary States of Consciousness

By: Stanislav Grof Ph.D.

Narrated by: Stanislav Grof

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

In every mystical wisdom tradition, nonordinary states of consciousness have served as essential tools for discovering why we are here and how we can live richer, more meaningful lives. For over 40 years, Stanislav Grof has tested and brought these methods into the field of modern psychology. Are emotional states and behavioral patterns explained solely by brain chemistry and life experience - or could they be expressions of far vaster universal energies? Which specific mind states most powerfully accelerate integration and healing of the self? And how do you access these states? In The Transpersonal Vision, Grof answers these questions - and raises many others - in a stunning summation of his groundbreaking life's work. You will learn about transpersonal psychology's daring forays into the worlds of the shaman and the mystic; how your perinatal (birth and prebirth) experience profoundly affect you even today; what past-life, near-death, and out-of-body phenomena teach us about our life purpose; and much more.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©1998 Stanislav Grof; Cover Images 1998 PhotoDisc, Inc., All Rights Reserved (P)1999 Sounds True

Everyone should listen to this--reshape your world

Narrated with the gentle voice of Grof himself. This presentation is DENSE with research, materials, and ideas abut non-ordinary states. Grof presents the perinatal matrices, details shamanic and psychedelic imports to culture, shares his research in psychedelic therapies including LSD and Holotropic Breathwork, examines spirituality v religion, and poses and explores many hypotheses of the nature of the existence of human consciousness. A must-listen for those interested in non-ordindary states of consciousness, shamanic cultures, and the history of human relationship to psychedelic substances.

Starts slow, but finishes strong.

This book was highly recommended. I couldn't see why after the first few chapters, and I stopped listening for a couple months. I finally came back to it and was rewarded with a good finish. The first part was slow, but it sets the framework by which the rest of the book is constructed. All in all, it was an interesting book, and am glad I finished it.

Outstanding program!

This audiobook/program by Stanislav Grof presents a compelling alternative to the current Cartesian-Newtonian world view offered to and adopted by most western societies. It gives new meaning to the term "time-tested" in the context of the study of social "technologies" which evolved over the last 5000 years, and were forgotten, suppressed or replaced by modern science and materialistic paradigms. He exposes the fallacy of thinking about hard science and spirituality as conflicting disciplines. It is particularly interesting to hear this from a man of science who grew up and was educated in the rational, materialistic system of thought.

Intellectually, it begs us to at least consider the idea of a cosmic existence beyond our rational ,ego-centric being, but even more interesting are the practical implications. How we view ourselves, and the life strategies we adopt, consciously or not; shape most of our existence in this world. Dr. Grof presents a practical method to improve the voyage, through a process of self-discovery.

A fascinating account of the evolution of depth psychology, social pathology and the path to profound evolutionary change in the human psyche.

Highly recommended.

Phenomenal Overview of Work

Would you consider the audio edition of The Transpersonal Vision to be better than the print version?

No Comment - haven't read

Any additional comments?

Great overview of Stansilav Grof's body of work and key concepts. This is an audio recording of him in a lecture setting.

Get ready to get you head wide open !

If you could sum up The Transpersonal Vision in three words, what would they be?

Revolutionary, necessary, Genius

What did you like best about this story?

This summed up my learning of the last 10 years and set me up for new challenges.

Any additional comments?

This book is a most for any mental health professional or person in the spiritual path. very reveling! Thanks doctor Grof!

table of contents

very valuable, hard to navigate. it'd be useful to include a pdf. table of content.

spend the credit!

great! so interesting! about to re listen after I type this! certainly ..... sounds true!

Engrossing.

An exquisitely narrated adventure through Dr. Grof's career researching non ordinary states of consciousness and how their benefit can reach across not only psychosomatic disorders but the advancement of humanity through transpersonal work in the individual. A bit "clinical" at times, but I found the mentioned case studies fascinating and relevant to the material at hand, blending the psychological, spiritual, and the mystic nicely. Truly a wonderful listen for anyone working to advance their consciousness.

Very powerful book, completely appropriate

Very powerful book, encompassing such diverse topics as entheogenics, psychotherapy and spirituality and weaving it into a coherent modality called transpersonal therapy. I strongly recommend it for anyone seeking answers in this world gone mad!

A broad overview of an incredibly deep well

Well read by the author & I enjoy the view point.
Feels good to see some of the subtlety expressed finding it's way into our modern practices

A Different Perspective

I really enjoyed listening to this; as someone who used LSD personally and professionally as a psychiatrist when it was legal(!), Grof maintains that the worlds of psychiatry and psychology are far too small. In essence he suggests that 'breakdown' may also be seen as spiritual crisis and 'breakthrough', spiritual emergence from the spiritual emergency. A challenging book for psychiatric 'dogma', and full of hope in my opinion.

Fascinating! You dont learn this in school.

A very fascinating talk indeed! Graf has highlighted aspects that I have experienced in my own self administered psychedelic therapy using LSD which has not only positively shifted my own understanding of life, but has also put me onto the path of self realisation. I am more connected with life, nature and people in general, and feel new realms of possibilty, emerging from within as if it were orchestrating itself at times. This I would definitely say is due to the self actualization that has come about from responsible use of psychedelics. Such data acquired from these studies of non ordinary states of consciousness gives me great hope for humanity. It's still early days tho. Fingers crossed x

The most important book I have ever listened to

Amazing. Insightful. Stunning. The world needs the transpersonal vision.

I have been going through my own spiritual rebirth with the assistance of psychedelics and Grof has explained some of the insights I was battling with. I can't reccomend this audiobook enough

Very thought provoking

A well researched and thought provoking listening experience. One that has opened up a whole new pandora's box to explore in terms of psyche.

interesting ideas. too much religious inclinations

a lot of great ideas and practices.
I didn't like some parts like references to astrology...
absolutely worth recommending!

A must read

Grof is a one of the greatest psychologists who have tapped into the topic with extreme grace and intelligence. The knowledge is timeless and needs to be taken seriously in our future application.

Disappointing and dubious interpretations

I found that the ideas and observations were well explained and interesting to hear about, but many of the interpretations look like nothing more than wishful thinking. Even so, it was interested to hear this, in order to understand what types of thing people are thinking about these non-ordinary states of consciousness.
As the book progressed, it moved more towards the existence of consciousness independent of the body, and the more it moved into that territory the more flawed the interpretations became that support that conclusion, with obvious logic errors being ignored.
Overall, I found little of practical use from this book that could be taken and applied, except getting some insight into the way some people are thinking about this subject. It's a shame as it looks like there really is considerable healing potential from the use of Nonordinary States of Consciousness, but the book focused more on trying to persuade that consciousness is independent of the physical body, rather than going into much depth about how these states can be used for healing.

Mind opening

I started this book with the idea that it would talk about psilocybin or LSD use and how to use it for oneself in the search for the whole truth, but it went onto a much larger spectrum about how people have used it and the whole similarity between ancestry and the new world, I really enjoyed this book

Interesting and informative

I didn't know anything about this subject before listening to the book but I found it very interrsting and the narrator - the author - has a relaxed clear way of explaining the subject.

I will definitely be revisiting this book.

Interesting

Some strange ideas, but well worth listening to. Important that transpersonal psychology is taken seriously.